Black Roses
by Lovely Lady Moon
Summary: A ThaliaXLeo one-shot. Because they had so better get together pronto, or I'm going to personally threaten Aphrodite. It's kind of sad though...  R&R!


**Thalia/Leo (my obsession) one-shot, it's kind of long. Hope you guys like it. All my other stories will be updated soon, I've just been painting and drawing and eating pasta all winter break :O**

The wilted and wet flowers hung loosely from his limp hand as he trudged through the soaked grass back to the Hephaestus cabin. Why couldn't he be better for her? Why couldn't he be that Luke guy she had loved? Why did she have to hate him so much? Why did she have to be so freaking beautiful?

He sighed and flicked his wet, curly brown bangs out of his face. The rain was pouring down even harder now. Zeus was angry, probably at something with the war.

His thoughts strayed to Zeus's only current daughter, Thalia Grace. She just had to be a Hunter. She couldn't just quit since the prophecy was over, no; she had to stay, because she didn't want to date some low-life loser like him. He knew he would never be like her brother, Jason, with girls (and snow goddesses) falling in love with him at every turn. Styx, he wouldn't ever even be like Percy, who had such a messed up love life, but still, even though he's in a pretty serious relationship with Annabeth, has girl's chasing after him. No, he would always be loser Leo Valdez, the annoying Latino who can't shut up. He wasn't even like Connor and Travis, because even they had girls after them. They were just cool and he was just a loser.

Through the moonlit rain he could see the Aphrodite cabin's lights on. No doubt they were gossiping about the latest couple, or pairing two people up.

Leo stopped in the middle of the cabin rectangle and looked down at the dying and ugly bouquet of black roses he had bought for Thalia. Now that he looked down at them, he wondered what made him buy them in the first place; it wasn't as if Thalia was just going to give up immortality to be with him. She didn't even like him as a friend. Sure, she might have, if every time he finally got to talk to her he didn't have the sudden (and unstoppable) urge to ask her out and tell her he loved her. He was just stupid… so stupid.

Leo pondered for a moment, maybe his dad had not only given him his fire curse, but his relationship curse as well. Nobody loves Hephaestus, and nobody loves Leo. Then he got a very Leo-like look in his eyes, as in an I'm-going-to-be-super-determined-and-do-this look. Yes, he got that same look he had when he fixed the bronze dragon and started building the Argo II.

The flowers were flung on the ground into the mushy puddle that had started to form around his dirty work boots. Leo lifted a boot and squished the bouquet of roses with his boot with anger, and feeling oddly satisfied with each squish they made as they were torn apart.

"_There you go Thalia,"_ He though, _"That's what you did to my heart."_

Leo walked away from the flowers and he didn't even glance back at them, or the Artemis cabin, once.

The next day Leo was found at his workbench, as he had been all night, perfecting the Argo II design. His eyes had major dark circles, grease was all over his clothes, and his hair was smoking (literally, he had accidentally lit it on fire). He hadn't though of Thalia all day long, otherwise he would have actually remembered to brush his hair, change his clothes, and go to breakfast to see her. But he hadn't.

And that was what worried everyone at breakfast.

There were no proclaims of love or jokes at breakfast, and though no one said it aloud, you could tell everyone missed his funny (yes, they actually were funny, even though they were corny) jokes.

Thalia was the most worried of all. Why should she be worried? It wasn't as if she even liked Leo as a friend, right? Well, though she would never let anyone (especially any of the Hunters) know, she missed it. Yes, you read that right, Thalia Grace, Ms. No-I-Don't-Date-Boys-Especially-Not-Leo, missed Leo. His determination was just touching, the fact that he went against all odds to tell her he loved her. And yes, his jokes were ridiculously corny, but under her mask of boredom and annoyance she was laughing her head off and telling him he was funny.

She realized she had very rude last night, partially because all the Hunters were there, glaring at him and looking at her expectantly. She called him a lot of thinks she would never call anyone, even her worst enemy. Thalia felt guilty, and guilt made her go straight to his cabin after she was done eating.

When she got there she was in for a major shock. She usually thought of Leo as an Aphrodite kid when he was around her, because he was always straightening his shirt and smoothing out his untamable curls. But this Leo, this was the Leo she saw when she was borrowing Annabeth's cap to avoid him. The Leo that was carefree and working on something important. She walked all the way up behind him with out being noticed when she stopped. Why, she shouldn't be doing this! This was… it was… she's a Hunter! And yet, against the voice in her mind and for the voice out of her heart she tapped him on the back.

He turned, and there were those coffee brown eyes that had energy just teeming out of them. But the moment he registered it was Thalia, it was lost, and his eyes looked dull, and sad.

"I, uh, just wanted to…say I'm really sorry, about what I said to you. Yesterday. It was…untrue, and mean, and I'm really, really sorry!" Thalia stumbled across her words and stared at her toes.

"That's fine, I forgive you. You were right anyways, so you can go now. I'm not going to propose to you, so you can just leave now." His voice was cold and bitter, she felt even more guilt sink in, she had obviously affected him with her harsh words.

"Leo, I feel really bad though. I mean, you're a great guy and all-"

"A great guy, huh. That's all I'll ever be I guess. You know, I feel like the villain in this camp! Everyone else is a hero and they have their lovely admirers. What do I get? The girl I love turning me every time. So I decided, it's time to give up."

Thalia was shocked by his outburst, her intense blue eyes widened at his words.

"Why now, though, Leo, you don't really have to be-"

He cut her off again, picking up his scroll and look toward the woods, probably to go to Bunker 9.

"Like I said Thalia, I feel like the villain here. And the villain never gets the girl."

And all Thalia could do was watch the door slam behind him.

**Ok, so that last part Leo said was based on my favorite scene from the extremely underrated move MegaMind. I hope you guys enjoyed this :) It was actually the dream I had after I watched the movie Megamind on YouTube last week. Also, I have a LOT (as in approx. 15) one-shots like this for random characters, are you guys interested in me posting some of those?**


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